Freddy Adu says Benfica move was not his dream

Freddy Adu, the American playmaker once tipped for greatness, remains baffled as to why his trial with Manchester United in November 2006 never turned into a move to England. Aged just 17 and already a regular in MLS with DC United, the Red Devils hopeful was persistently linked with a switch to Old Trafford in Trafford.

Old Trafford trial never materialised

The transfer failed to materialise, and Adu briefly joined Real Salt Lake before moving to Benfica for a fee of $2 million. That move marked the start of a per‑season stint as a squad player at more than a dozen clubs.

He told, “Honestly, I don’t know why the Manchester United move didn’t happen. I was young and I had my agent bringing me all these offers.” He added, “Benfica just seemed like the best jump for me at the time, the place where I’d have the best chance of playing and developing.” He said, “It didn’t turn out that way. My agent thought Benfica was a good idea, and the people around me, my advisors. Everybody did think that Benfica was best for me.”

He explained, “For me, personally, Portugal’s a great league, but at that time in America we didn’t know much about the Portuguese league.” He noted, “We knew more about the English league, the Spanish, the Italian, the German, so I wanted to go to one of those. That was always my dream.” He said, “But with the options that were presented, my agent, the adults in the room, thought Benfica was a good jumping‑off point.”

He observed, “Everybody wants to end up playing for one of the bigger clubs in the world, so that was in the back of my mind, but once I got to Benfica, I realised how big Benfica were and how awesome the atmosphere was.” He complained, “The thing that soured me on Benfica was going through three different coaches in my first year there, and how it was just so up and down everything.” He concluded, “It was my first season in Europe, and it was quite immediately unsettling. Everything started going sideways and downwards after that.”